To control multiple devices using a central control unit, the multiple devices may be connected to a common bus and may communicate with the control module, and with each other, using some pre-defined protocol. Examples of such interconnected devices include computer networks mat include multiple-deployed terminals connected to a central server.
In some applications, separate devices connected to a common bus communicate data to each other by transmitting ‘bits’ in a timed sequence and a fixed format, with the bits having binary weighted values that depend on their position. For example, connected devices may transmit eight (8) bits in a sequence, with the bits having weights of 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 . . . 27. Using this particular scheme, a number in a range of 0-255 may be encoded, and larger numeric representation can be achieved by concatenating sequentially transmitted bytes. Under some circumstances, control bits (e.g., ‘Start Bit’, ‘Stop Bit’) may be used with such transmitted communication sequences, thus resulting in bit sequences that include data bits and control bits.
Communication schemes that are based on weighted bits require, careful synchronization and timing control of the transmitted communications because, bits that are out of place in a communicated bit-sequence will be weighed erroneously. Consequently, interconnected devices generally have to transmit data at a common rate and adhere to a specific synchronization and timing control scheme, or else erroneous decoding of the data may result.